Thursday afternoon was really the start of the packed convention schedule with sometimes three open meeting running simultaneously. My experience from the 2009 convention paid off and I had a better idea which meetings were the best to attend. The Professional Horseman’s Council, led by Jon Holling, was a can’t miss event.
Rider Reps: The first item up for the PHC was the rider rep rule change. The new version of rule more clearly defines the requirements for being a rider rep and the responsibilities of the reps, such as specifically giving the rider rep the responsibility of inspecting the XC and show jumping courses. The rule change is intended to give the rider rep position more ‘teeth’ in an attempt to make sure that we as riders are better able to influence competitions during the competition. Everyone at the meeting seemed comfortable with the idea and the discussion was brief.
Educational Formats: The next topic was a proposal to bring the educational format used at training three-days to the modern CCI formats. The justification for the changes was that the CCI* and CCI** levels have had some appalling lapses in horsemanship recently and the educational clinic/seminar format has been successful at the T3DE level. A motion to organize a new task force, headed by Max Corcoran, with the intent of applying the T3DE educational format to spring CCI*’s passed unanimously. Of course, the PHC has an advisory role so more committees will have to give the “ok” before this idea is implemented at competitions.
Advanced Divisions: The meeting was going quite smoothly and Phillip stood up with a proposal to give organizers the option of not dividing a 40+ rider advanced division into multiple divisions. The current rules require that 40+ horse divisions are divided up. This proposal just gives organizers the option to not divide the division. Jon pointed out that for a non-safety USEF rule changes, it will be 2013 before the new rule would go into place. Nonetheless, later is better than never, and the motion to draft the rule change proposal passed unanimously.
Watch List: Next up for discussion was the infamous watch list. According to one PHC member, out of 6,000 USEA starters in 2010, only 4 have been reported for the watch list and none were added to the actual list. As Jon said, “our sport isn’t that good.” The watch list rule explains that once someone is nominated for the watch list, a ‘notifier’ (Mark) contacts them and then determines from the conversation if they are to be added to the list. In all 4 cases, the riders agreed to drop down a level and they were not added to the watch list. There’s no real point to having a watch list if no one uses it and it seems like the problem is the classic “someone else will report it” issue.
In 2010 there were more horse falls than 2009, and the watch list is designed to help reduce these incidents. But, there’s no point to having the watch list if no one uses it. As a background, the nominations to put someone on the ‘watch list’ for dangerous riding are made through ICP coaches. A motion was passed unanimously to have the PHC propose to the USEF technical committee that once a rider is nominated to be put on the list they would be automatically put on the list, that the rider, coach, and owners would all be contacted by the notifier, and that there would be a follow-up conversation by the notifier at a later date.
CIC’s: Another item of discussion was the apparent uselessness of CIC*’s in terms of qualifications. Since the CIC*’s are not necessary for qualifying for the next level, there is no real incentive for riders to pay the extra money to do a CIC*. Phillip, always the pragmatist, pointed out that if the division is unnecessary, no one will enter the division, and it will die off in the long run without any action by the PHC. Since the qualifications in question are under the FEI, a change to that rule would be even more difficult than a USEF rule change.
Jersey Fresh: Next up was the future of Jersey Fresh. Marilyn Payne announced that Jersey Fresh will run in 2011 despite the fact that the event has been losing money recently. A request was put out for riders to explain what issues with the event should be addressed to raise the number of competitors. We would all hate to lose a CCI3* venue but things need to turn around for Jersey to be viable in the long run. As Karen O’Connor said, the issue is that Jersey now has competition from Bromont and Bromont has invested a lot of money to try to put on a superior event. Phillip said that the Jersey courses were a lot better in 2010, but bringing riders back to Jersey will take time.
Then there was an announcement that there is a rule proposal for mandatory suspensions from events of 7, 14, and 21 days for falls that result in concussions, depending on the severity of the concussion.
Helmets: The PHC saved the best for last–the helmet issue. According to the PHC, there is a USEF rule proposal that strapped and certified helmets will be required at all US national events. Apparently the eventing committee will vote on the rule Saturday, so a new rule could be passed as soon as this weekend. There was absolutely no opposition from the PHC meeting from the new rule, so the rule change seems likely to succeed. Obviously, this will not affect FEI events, where FEI rules will still reign supreme.
There are more meetings left on the agenda, so we’ll have more soon.
